I like the idea, although I think BM should be for ranged tanking, Surv for melee, and MM for ranged DPS. I also think Rogues Assassination tree should be more of a ranged DPS, Sub pure stealth, and Combat more of a buccaneer.

I don't understand the knee jerk resistance to the Idea of a BM as a Melee Spec. .

Because changing my favorite spec into a non-ranged spec after it being a ranged spec for nine years for no gain other than "it's different now" is stupid.

I don't want to be in melee range. I'm a ranged and I want to deal with ranged mechanics. That's why I made my character a ranged class. Why not make Warlock or Mage have a melee spec? Or Shadow Priest melee? I'm sure they'd all love having their effective range drastically reduced and not do any extra damage to compensate.

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I don't want to be in melee range. I'm a ranged and I want to deal with ranged mechanics. That's why I made my character a ranged class.

It's almost like you have 3 specs. The idea of a class with 3 specs that all play identically is stupid. Like I said already, why not just give Hunters 1 spec then? They are the most rigid and thematically boring of all the classes in WoW.

Edit: Also, the reason you wouldn't turn Enh into a tanking spec is because then you're removing the ability to play a melee-DPS. Shamans already have 3 functionally different specs. Changing BM doesn't remove your ability to play ranged-DPS.

Reintroduce Eyes of the Beast as a BM-only cooldown. You would temporarily gain manual control over your pet (think mind-control, the camera would switch to them in melee range) with a linked health pool (so that healers wouldn't have to target your pet instead) and your actual character would operate like a pet for the duration, like a frost mage's water elemental. It could just cast auto shot or steady or whatever. During the EotB CD, pet abilities replace your own (maybe add a few new ones to make it a bit more complex) and pet's damage is increased by yadda yadda who cares etc..

Before anyone gets up-in-arms about a drastic change like that, keep in mind that hunter specs reeeaally need some differentiation right now. As it is, all the hunter specs are exactly the same. Focus builder (steady/cobra), focus dump (arcane), signature shot (Chimera/Kill Command/Explosive), special move/proc/shortCD (Aimed, Black Arrow, Kill Command), and a dot (SS) along with CDs that they all have, so being attached to one spec in particular doesn't make much sense to me. You literally change 2 buttons to switch specs.

This kind of thing would certainly help make them feel different, and it fits with the BM theme w/o making it full melee. Make MM petless w/ Volley AoE (just an idea, since MM AoE is practically non-existent atm and could use some re-invigoration) and Armor Pen mastery and BOOM, you got yourself 3 substantially different hunter specs without breaking any of their overall themes.

BEAST Mastery a melee class? I think MM or Survival is more suitable tbh, MM more-so than Surv.

But Hunter has always been a ranged class like Warlock and Mage. Making them melee is odd. Maybe just have 1 spec that doesn't like pets like MM (which I think Blizzard is trying to implement). I do agree that the specs need to be changed SLIGHTLY so they play differently, but I disagree with a melee spec.

And I use BM for PvE and MM for PvP, the specs/ attacks are not identical and the play style is a bit different, but people will always have something to complain about.

Reintroduce Eyes of the Beast as a BM-only cooldown. You would temporarily gain manual control over your pet (think mind-control, the camera would switch to them in melee range) with a linked health pool (so that healers wouldn't have to target your pet instead) and your actual character would operate like a pet for the duration, like a frost mage's water elemental. It could just cast auto shot or steady or whatever. During the EotB CD, pet abilities replace your own (maybe add a few new ones to make it a bit more complex) and pet's damage is increased by yadda yadda who cares etc..

This was sort of the idea I had a few months ago and was about to post. :-) Make Bestial Wrath a cooldown where you become your pet. Maybe your hunter's body stays behind a bit like the effect for the monk / priest things where they leave their body behind, or maybe your hunter's body just merges completely with the pet. Then you get to rampage as your pet, and your main hunter abilities get replaced with vaguely analogous melee versions that do more damage.

It would be cool because controlling other character models is fun. It's why shapeshifting as a druid is cool. But it would be even better because of the variety of pet models. And it would certainly sort out a lot of the problems with making the specs different.

This was sort of the idea I had a few months ago and was about to post. :-) Make Bestial Wrath a cooldown where you become your pet. Maybe your hunter's body stays behind a bit like the effect for the monk / priest things where they leave their body behind, or maybe your hunter's body just merges completely with the pet. Then you get to rampage as your pet, and your main hunter abilities get replaced with vaguely analogous melee versions that do more damage.

It would be cool because controlling other character models is fun. It's why shapeshifting as a druid is cool. But it would be even better because of the variety of pet models. And it would certainly sort out a lot of the problems with making the specs different.

This idea sounds bad. why someone being in long range would suddenly port to melee range? it will also make it useless in PvP situation, almost always that version of BW will gimp u in PvP and in PvE as well. having similar spells as beast sounds cool, but it wont be so cool, unless u can key bind it and u cant keybind it with normal hunter spells.

This idea sounds bad. why someone being in long range would suddenly port to melee range? it will also make it useless in PvP situation, almost always that version of BW will gimp u in PvP and in PvE as well. having similar spells as beast sounds cool, but it wont be so cool, unless u can key bind it and u cant keybind it with normal hunter spells.

long story short, it wont be reality.

Well, you've got two hunters (Kaitain and myself) already who think it would be cool. Granted that's two out of hundreds of thousands of hunters, but it proves we exist and I'd be willing to bet others would find it cool too. Regardless, I think the primary reason you might want to do such a thing would be variety and spec differentiation, as we both said. Switch it up a bit. I wouldn't want to go full melee myself, but put it on a Stampede level duration and cooldown, and I think that would really break the monotony. It would certainly be more interesting to hit than Stampede, both from a visual and gameplay perspective.

Anyway, I don't understand dismissing it as a useless gimp with nothing to go on other than a vague idea of an ability. Theoretically, it could boost your damage by 100% and give you two new CC's and a pvp trinket. That'd be ridiculous, but my point is it's just a general idea of an ability, with no numbers or new pet abilities even proposed, so it's kind of odd to say that it will be useless or a gimp at this point.

I don't understand the problem with keybindings. When you get into a vehicle or a tank or something, the abilities and action buttons for it replace your own, on the same keybindings, no work required. Furthermore there's spells/talents in the game already which augment other spells, automatically replacing them on your bars.

I agree though, that it won't be reality. I don't see Blizz making a change this big, even though they promised hunters a bit of differentiation. I have a feeling that's going to amount to minor changes to arcane shot under a new name for each spec.

Well, you've got two hunters (Kaitain and myself) already who think it would be cool. Granted that's two out of hundreds of thousands of hunters, but it proves we exist and I'd be willing to bet others would find it cool too. Regardless, I think the primary reason you might want to do such a thing would be variety and spec differentiation, as we both said. Switch it up a bit. I wouldn't want to go full melee myself, but put it on a Stampede level duration and cooldown, and I think that would really break the monotony. It would certainly be more interesting to hit than Stampede, both from a visual and gameplay perspective.

Anyway, I don't understand dismissing it as a useless gimp with nothing to go on other than a vague idea of an ability. Theoretically, it could boost your damage by 100% and give you two new CC's and a pvp trinket. That'd be ridiculous, but my point is it's just a general idea of an ability, with no numbers or new pet abilities even proposed, so it's kind of odd to say that it will be useless or a gimp at this point.

I don't understand the problem with keybindings. When you get into a vehicle or a tank or something, the abilities and action buttons for it replace your own, on the same keybindings, no work required. Furthermore there's spells/talents in the game already which augment other spells, automatically replacing them on your bars.

I agree though, that it won't be reality. I don't see Blizz making a change this big, even though they promised hunters a bit of differentiation. I have a feeling that's going to amount to minor changes to arcane shot under a new name for each spec.

What a relevant, insightful, and helpful contribution. Thank you for posting. You can tell by what I wrote that I clearly wasn't already aware that two hunters are statistically insignificant, and now thanks to you I've also learned that autism is irrelevant too, as it also exists at such a low ratio. Or perhaps you were insinuating that I have autism? I gotta admit I was so blow away by the quality of your comment that I can't even wrap my head around it, so maybe I do.

After seeing the trailer for warlords, how cool would it be for BM to be a Melee class instead of a range. It already fits since most of the damage is from your pet.

It doesn't really matter as Blizzard explicitly said that BM isn't going to be a melee spec, like ever.

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Originally Posted by raydan

BEAST Mastery a melee class?

I think MM or Survival is more suitable, I would say MM.

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BEAST Mastery a melee class? I think MM or Survival is more suitable tbh, MM more-so than Surv.

But Hunter has always been a ranged class like Warlock and Mage. Making them melee is odd. Maybe just have 1 spec that doesn't like pets like MM (which I think Blizzard is trying to implement). I do agree that the specs need to be changed SLIGHTLY so they play differently, but I disagree with a melee spec.

And I use BM for PvE and MM for PvP, the specs/ attacks are not identical and the play style is a bit different, but people will always have something to complain about.

You think that MM -a spec designed entirely around the feeling of being a "sniper" who relies considerably less on the pet and more on his own damage- would be better spec for melee. /facedesk

The melee components Survival had back in vanilla were so broken. I still remember just going melee, with enchanted swords doing nothing but Raptor Strike and Counter attack and it wrecked in PvP. Ah the olden days.

lol. no kidding. None of this thread will. I thought it was a wishful thinking sort of thread. I thought everyone knew WoD was almost in beta. Massive design u-turns don't happen in betas. My bad if I misunderstood the point of the thread.